Hanif Kureishi

• Date of birth - 5 December 1954.

• An English playwriter, screenwriter and filmmaker, novelist and short story writer.

• In 2008, The Times included Kureishi in their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".

• Was born in South London to a Pakistani father, and an English mother.

• His father was from a wealthy family, most of whose members moved to Pakistan after the Partition of British India in 1947.

• After his parents married, the family settled in Bromley where Kureishi was born.

• He attended Bromley Technical High School and studied for A levels at Bromley College of Technology.

• While at this college he was elected as Student Union President (1972) and some of the characters from his semi-autobiographical work The Buddha of Suburbia are from this period.

• He went on to spend a year studying philosophy at Lancaster University before dropping out.

• Later he attended King's College London and took a degree in philosophy.

Race

Sexuality

ImmigrationNationalism

Islamism

Family’s relationship

Bibliography2009 The Black Album, play.2008 Something to Tell You.2005 The Word and the Bomb.2004 When The Night Begins.2004 My Ear at His Heart.2003 The Mother.2002 The Body and Other Stories.2002 Dreaming and Scheming: Reflections on Writing and Politics.2001 Gabriel's Gift.1999 Sleep with Me.1999 Midnight All Day.1998 My Son, the Fanatic, screenplay.1998 Intimacy.1997 Love in a Blue Time.1996 The Faber Book of Pop.1995 The Black Album.1991 London Kills Me: Screenplay.1990 Buddha of Suburbia.1986 My Beautiful Laundrette.1983 Outskirts and Other Plays.1983 Birds of Passage.1981 Borderline. 

• His most famous work is My Beautiful Laundrette, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980's London for a film directed by Stephen Frears. It won the New York Film Critics Best Screenplay Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Screenplay.

• His book The Buddha of Suburbia (1990) won the Whitbread Award for the best first novel, and was also made into a BBC television series with a soundtrack by David Bowie. This book is about a mixed-race teenager who is desperate to escape his suburban life in South London .

• His novel Intimacy (1998) revolved around the story of a man leaving his wife and two young sons after feeling physically and emotionally rejected by his wife. This created certain controversy as Kureishi himself had recently left his wife and two young sons. It is assumed to be at least semi-autobiographical. In 2000/2001 the novel was loosely adapted to a movie Intimacy by Patrice Chéreau, which won two Bears at the Berlin Film Festival: a Golden Bear for Best Film, and a Silver Bear for Best Actress (Kerry Fox). It was controversial for its unreserved sex scenes. The book was translated into Persian by Niki Karimi in 2005.

Awards2007 National Short Story Competition, shortlist - 'Weddings and Beheadings'2007 CBE1990 Whitbread First Novel Award, The Buddha of Suburbia1981 George Devine Award, Outskirts1980 Thames Television Playwright Award, The Mother Country

Kureishi is married and has twins and a younger son

• Do you think it is racist to attack the Islamic religion?- I come from a Muslim family; I come from a Muslim country: Pakistan.

I’m well aware of how dangerous religions like Islam can be. It’s ridiculous to think it’s racist to attack a religion. In fact, it’s racist not to attack a religion. These are systems of power, huge political forces of the world—you have to speak back against it, otherwise you exist in an authoritarian system. Look at the way these societies have attacked and tortured intellectuals in the past, in places like Iran, Egypt and Libya. The West has continued to patronise them and refuse to attack them. A very robust exchange is extremely important.

• What does a good essay do for the reader?

- An essay isn’t a work of non-fiction, it isn’t journalism as such. It’s written to inspire, provoke and ultimately to give pleasure to the reader. Essays differ from fiction, in that you don’t distribute yourself amongst your characters. There is one single full-on point of view.

 • Did you find it difficult to become a

writer?- It’s very difficult at the beginning, because you don’t really know who you are, and you don’t know if you are going to become the writer that you want to be. Until you are established, you think: am I a writer? Or am I someone who is pretending to be a writer? It was bloody hard work getting there, but it’s fantastic to have done it.

Thank you for attention!